This video is #1 of a planned 3-part series on General MIDI and we begin with a product designed for the ATARI 8-bit line of microcomputers leveraging the DREAM 2695 General MIDI Synth IC known as the JIL_SAMMER, a DREAM chip and supporting circuitry crammed into an ATARI SIO connector from Lotharek.PL (Poland). This video includes a primer on the basics of FujiNet and examines a handful of .mid files, one of which has been flagged : ) as copyrighted as detailed below(*).
*includes a MIDI transcription/example of the RUSH song "Broon's Bane" (Copyright, Anthem Entertainment).
Following the introduction, I give a quick 15 second preview of video #2 (in the "music room" segment), where MIDI and non-MIDI devices and protocols are discussed. Video #2 culminates with a discussion on the enhancement to the 1983 v1.0 MIDI specification, "General MIDI", which was released in its original form in 1991.
General MIDI was a game changer for PC based sound cards that were eventually graced with wavetable expansion modules. The DREAM chip was among several, often appearing as the "S2" or "Waveblaster" device.
Part #3 will simply be a 'no-talking' play-through of 3 high-quality .mid tracks, recorded direct from the JIL_SAMMER through its built-in 3.5mm STEREO jack into a Clone Alliance capture device. On-screen, you'll see the static ATARI MIDIPLAY screen accompanied by a low-budget Apple Garage Band synched live-play. (I'm in the background, manipulating Garage Band views while the music is playing).
If you are accustomed to 8-bit audio ICs from the earliest PET 40xx beeps up through the POKEY and the Commodore SID chip and Yamaha OPL devices but have not paid attention to wavetable GM synthesis, you'll be surprised at how good these things sound.
A note about the Foenix F256K2, for the uninitiated: Stefany from Foenix Retro is taking pre-orders (as of this publish date) for the successor to the F256K machine, the "K2". The F256K2 computer has an onboard DREAM 2695 IC (discussed briefly at 1:58-2:18). The tie-in/implication is, with the availability of MIDI for the F256K2 system, everything you hear in the 3rd video, and the dynamics of MIDI and General MIDI is directly applicable to the Foenix machine and as mentioned, the Foenix Marketplace (link below) will be hosting collections of .mid files, beginning with the Monkey Island series, and they will play identically on the F256K2 machine! (for those previewing this first video, the first .mid publish will occur at instantiation of the Playlist for this 3-part series on June 21st/22nd).
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** The usual stuff
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** Links and/or references mentioned:
Foenix Retro home page:
c256foenix.com
Foenix Rising Newsletter:
apps.emwhite.or...
Link to Wordmark Public Domain statement:
www.wordmark.org/
Link to Lotharek's main site (he does alot more than just these two products and more than 'just' ATARI:
lotharek.pl/
Link to Lotharek's RU-vid demo of his product with TITLE.mid:
• ATARI 8bit SIO MIDI pl...
Fun RU-vid link of Lotharek exercising his high-end pick & place fabrication machine, manufacturing JIL_SAMMERs, 9-up:
• Smd mount of ATARI 8bi...
Link to DREAM SAM 2695 spec:
docs.dream.fr/...
Link to Sandrine Sims "breakout challenge" for the 2695:
• SAM2695 MIDI Synth DIY...
Link to Michael S. Pierre's MIDIPLAY 1.3 'review' (he has several ATARI 8-bit MIDI and S2 videos on his channel as well:
• Atari 8 Bit MIDI PLAY ...
Link to the Anne Bras Monkey Island (Carillon) video:
• Monkey Island Theme So...
28 авг 2024
